The healthcare system is continuously evolving to adapt to the population's needs, both in terms of healthcare practices, and in financial and organizational aspects. The current COVID-19 pandemic has added additional pressure to the healthcare system and shown its limits in terms of preparedness. It has also shown once again that both healthcare professionals (HCPs) and informal caregivers (ICs) play a central role for the functioning of the healthcare system.
An increasing number of studies are alerting on HCPs' situation, regarding their physical and mental health (e.g. emotional exhaustion, professional well-being) on the one hand, and the functioning of the healthcare system (e.g. absenteeism, turnover, career change) on the other hand.
Besides healthcare professionals, ICs, defined as "a person in the immediate entourage of an individual whose health and/or autonomy is impaired and who requires assistance with certain \[basic or instrumental\] activities of daily living. The IC provides the person, on a non-professional and informal basis, and on a regular basis, with assistance, care or presence services of varying nature and intensity, designed to compensate for their incapacities or difficulties or to ensure their safety, identity and social ties". Caring for others has shown to have negative impact on the ICs' life, in terms of health-related implications, psychological burden, quality of life, etc. Despite being increasingly recognized as having a key role in the provision of care, they have only been limitedly considered in studies on healthcare professionals.
In that context, the investigators develop SCOHPICA project, the Swiss cohort of healthcare professionals and informal caregivers, which is an open prospective national cohort using a concurrent embedded mixed method design. This project targets all types of HCPs and ICs, and will investigate determinants of intent to stay and well-being according to participants' trajectories.
Working as HCP, in any profession
Taking care of patients currently and actively
Working in any health work setting
Working as an independent or a salaried
Being retired at baseline
Unable to read or speak in one of the national languages: German, French, Italian
Being informal cargiver
Aged 18 and over (adults)
Any type of HCPs, having direct patient-contact and working in any type of settings across Switzerland Any type of informal caregivers (ICs), aged 18 and over, assisting a person for health reasons across Switzerland
Cohort
Prospective
Electronic surveys
Other interventionOnline questionnaires is used to collect data, at recruitment and follow-up once a year. For the ICs, paper questionnaire will be provided upon request.
Qualitative Interviews
Other interventionRemote focus groups or semi-structured interviews will be proposed to a subsample of the participants, first in 2025 and then every two years
Professional trajectories (HCPs), constructed from socio-professional variables [1]
Professional trajectories will be formulated based on socio-professional information (current and past occupation, education, work setting, career continuity, part-time contracts). Clustering procedures will be used to group healthcare professionals with similar trajectories, building thus a typology of professional trajectories in the Swiss health workforce.
Professional trajectories (HCPs), constructed from socio-professional variables [2]
Follow-up data will be used to complement the professional trajectories constructed on baseline socio-professional information. Changes in the variables which form the trajectories will be assessed and new typologies will be derived from the enhanced trajectories.
Professional trajectories (HCPs), constructed from socio-professional variables [3]
Follow-up data will be used to complement the professional trajectories constructed on baseline socio-professional information. Changes in the variables which form the trajectories will be assessed and new typologies will be derived from the enhanced trajectories.
Professional trajectories (HCPs), constructed from socio-professional variables [4]
Follow-up data will be used to complement the professional trajectories constructed on baseline socio-professional information. Changes in the variables which form the trajectories will be assessed and new typologies will be derived from the enhanced trajectories.
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisante), University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Lead sponsor
Institut et Haute Ecole de la Santé la Source
Collaborator
University of Lausanne Hospitals
Collaborator
Haute école de travail social et de la santé Lausanne - HETSL
Collaborator
